Coffee goes bad faster than you think unless properly sealed and stored.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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- Rice
- Dry beans
- Jarred Tomato Sauce
- Instant noodles
- Pasta (like you)
- Freezer vegetables
how do you store your dry beans? I always end up with my beans getting too dry and they stay hard even after lots of cooking, dry beans have become something I can't buy in bulk and only fresh.
Long term storage (years) in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in the bags with the beans. Seal it up and store it in a specific pantry tote for dry goods.
Short term storage (less than 1 year) is in 1/2 gallon mason jars. I really want to get some of the 2-gallon anchor hocking sealable jars so that I don't have to constantly refill my 1/2 gallon jars.
Quick tip on the super-dry beans: you need to soak them way longer than normal. For "regular" pintos, I soak overnight, which is 8 to 10 hours and then cook as you normally prefer.
For really old, super hard beans, I soak in the fridge for 2 days or more. 1 day soaked, rinse all the beans and refill the water, and then one more day soaking. 48 hours. Then, cook as normal. You will definitely notice a quality drop in beans that are 10 to 15 years old. Let your spices and / or vegetables that you add do some heavy lifting for flavor.
My go-to recipe for old beans is to make more of a thin sippable broth, so a lot of my beans get pureed after they are cooked, so that may also be a factor.
Good luck!
so, I always soak the beans overnight, and they don't soften even after more than a full day of cooking - it's almost like the cooking prevents it from further softening.
I'm not sure I've tried soaking 48 hours, though, and I would be happy to make them into a refried bean or cooked into a starchy soup - anything that doesn't leave hard beans would be great.
Thanks for this advice and for helping me, I'll try it out - this is giving me some confidence to try bulk beans storage again. I usually keep them in mason jars with the oxygen absorbers like you describe, so I'll try that again.
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Your beans are still dry after soaking them for 24 hours before cooking? Or you just rely on the cooking itself to hydrate them?
yes, even with soaking before cooking they remain dry. Even after boiling for an hour, cooling, and then simmering for hours. Even after simmering for multiple days - they just remain hard and never fully soften or cook.
Weed. Up to 35% cheaper when buying on bulk.
Flour, sugar, yeast
Canned soup. Huge difference in price from summer to winter.
Powdered whole milk! Forgot to mention that. If you dilute it 15% less than the directions state and chill it overnight, it's very satisfying and tastes similar to fresh milk. I mostly use it as a powder in baking recipes and stir it into tea.
I keep powdered buttermilk around for the occasional time I need to dredge chicken
Rice
In my city, there are only two products where it's really worthwhile to seek out major bulk purchase. Otherwise it's kind of an opportunistic thing you just get a deal when you can find one.
The two things are unsalted roasted hullled peanuts and cane sugar.
Anything we regularly use if I can afford it. We save loads by just going to cheap shops, sales and thrifts. Wife found the Arm & Hammer toothpaste I like, typically kinda high-priced, for $.50 a box at a garage sale. At another garage sale she found a dozen bottles of hand soap for $.50ea. and got them cheaper than that buying them all. Still using those! One time I got a 8-month supply of shampoo for $3 from a garage sale.
I buy shoes at the thrift if they're nice and a good fit, no matter how many I have ATM. OK, for awhile I quit, but I wore out several at once and I'm back to checking every time we're in the store.